Kate Spade is no stranger to being knocked off by Canal Street bag peddlers, but now the preppy bag line is the one facing accusations of copying a lesser-known designer.

Parisian designer Olympia Le-Tan called Kate Spade “a big fat copycat” on Twitter last month after Kate Spade came out with a line of classic-paperback themed bags that suspiciously mirrored Le-Tan’s own sought-after clutches. (That tweet has since been deleted.)

Salon.com reports:

And considering that Le-Tan’s line got a fair amount of press right here in the company’s home turf of New York City when it debuted last fall, it seems a little peculiar that the concept went entirely unnoticed by the more famous bag maker.

[Kate Spade], which is owned by Liz Claiborne, certainly wouldn’t be the first to draw “inspiration” from the work of lesser-known designers, but there is something particularly galling about a staid house apparently glomming on to a younger designer’s work — especially when said work has brought the artist such high acclaim.

Pictured above: Kate Spade’s clutch (left) faces off against Olympia Le-Tan’s bag (right).

(via CounterfeitChic)

On May 6, there will be a new eco-fashion capital: Lodz, Poland. That’s where the second annual RE-ACT Fashion Show will rock the runways with dead stock and upcycled designs.

The show will feature the debut of London-based eco-brand Goodone’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. (One of the line’s prettiest dresses for spring is pictured at left.)

And if you’re a fashion innovator, listen up: There’s a contest for young designers to honor the best recycling collection. The prize? 15,000 Polish zloty (or about $5,300 USD). That could buy a lot of food for starving artists.

The event will kick off the Spring 2010 FashionPhilosophy Fashion Week, so it’s worth your time to stick around afterwards.

“I’m wearing a dress made for me by Orsola de Castro. She is behind one of my favourite labels, From Somewhere, and is totally on my wavelength. Orsola is the queen of upcycling so everything about the dress has been salvaged from the waste bins of some very prestigious labels, no less, so my dress will be made from waste but you’d never know. I’m also wearing ethical pink diamonds from Australia, by Cajella (on loan of course), and my bag has been made for me by Bruno at Roger Vivier from offcuts. It’s really beautiful.”

– Livia Firth, wife of Best Actor nominee Colin Firth, on her elegant eco-pick for Oscar night. Want your own From Somewhere dress at a fraction of the price? Check out the brand’s new collaboration with U.K. discount retailer Tesco.

New Zealand’s most irreverent online magazine Stuff.co.nz has published “You want me to wear what?,” a round-up of the most bizarre and, er, high-exposure men’s fashion on the runways across the globe:

At Berlin Fashion Week German designer Tom Rebl went for bondage, sending out a model in a leather shoulder harness and nothing else. The model used his gloved hands to hide his package.

The fetish theme continued at London Fashion Week where Jaiden rVa James presented a collection that was frighteningly fierce and S&M; and New Power Studio put lipstick and silly hats on its models, including a drum. …

At Air New Zealand Fashion Week in September last year Kate Sylvester sent male models down the runway wearing women’s lingerie slips, and boxer shorts trimmed with lace for the presentation of her men’s and women’s 2010 winter collection Diamond Dogs. The collection was inspired by infamous Auckland socialite of the 1980s Judith Baragwanath who had a penchant for wearing menswear and black lipstick.

“We were pillaging our menswear and putting it on the girls and thought what about the poor old boys, and decided to do a complete swap,” Sylvester says. “We had very boysy boys – it was important that they still looked very masculine in their slips. The models were incredibly gracious about it and wore them in very good spirit.”

Call us callous but of course the models were gracious about it — why shouldn’t they be? For decades, women models have appeared on the catwalk decked out in everything from menswear to mere scraps of fabric. And anyone who’s seen the movie Prêt-à-Porter recalls the infamous Warhol-esque finale, with a bevy of models walking the runway completely naked.

Female models have endured such fashions with nary a complaint since the dawn of Fashion Week. I don’t know that we need to applaud their male counterparts for suffering such tame indignities.

Pictured above: A male model walks during Kate Sylvester’s Fall/Winter 2010 show at Auckland New Zealand Fashion Week.

From Lizzi Miller’s celebrated nude photoshoot in Glamour to the ascension of Crystal Renn on high-fashion catwalks, everyone is buzzing about size diversity. All of a sudden, pin thin is not the only acceptable silhouette in the fashion world.

So in our second-annual body issue, we explore variations on the weight theme.

• British designer Mark Fast has made waves again for employing plus-size models (including the aforementioned Crystal Renn) for the second time in his Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear Collection, presented at London Fashion Week on February 20. But, as excited as we are about this development, there remains some room for improvement.
• We surely can’t be the only ones who miss Mad Men while the television drama is on hiatus, but to fill the aching hole left by empty space on the Tivo, Christina Hendricks appeared in a bustier on the cover of New York Magazine this month. We totally understand why everyone is gaga for her classic curves, but why all the controversy?
• If there’s one must-read article in this issue (we like to believe that includes all of them, but regardless), it’s Kara’s profile of the exceptionally insightful ballerina known as Melissa T. in our second Real Girl Ethics column. Ever wonder what it would be like to work in an industry that constantly pesters you to be thin? As Melissa shows, it requires self-confidence (as well as buns) of steel.
• Of course, if all these stories merely whet your appetite for more, check out Seam Ripper for a few more articles on the subject of body issues.
• And don’t forget: A few days remain to enter our Weleda hand cream giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on this very blog. So simple it’s criminal, right?

Great news! Levi Strauss & Co. and U.K. charity Forum for the Future have jointly launched a new project to urge the fashion industry to collaborate on sustainable development with an eye to the future.

The Fashion Futures project includes a sustainability report and the production of four videos that envision what the world will be like in 2025 (focusing on the role the fashion industry plays in helping bring that about).

Says Peter Madden, CEO of Forum for the Future:

“The global fashion industry generates a trillion dollars a year. What we wear – and how it’s made and sold – can have a huge positive impact on our society and environment. This report describes how fashion’s future could be greener.”

You can watch the “Slow Is Beautiful” video above, and the other three mini-movies — titled “Community Couture,” “Techno-Chic,” and “Patchwork Planet” — can be viewed on the Fashion Futures website.

We couldn’t help but giggle a little at this quote from Steve Madden, the shoe knockoff king:

“We design shoes every day, and we are as creative as Prada. We are creating as much as the Pradas and the Chloés of the world. Do we make $900 shoes that are in Neiman Marcus? Have we made shoes just like that, which are less than $100 and have been great? Yes, we have. We’re out there creating and designing every day, making and building a meal for our customers. That creativity is not appreciated, and I would argue that what we do is harder. I could design an $800 shoe line; it’s easy. You use the best materials and you can make beautiful shoes. It’s easier than making great shoes for $90.”

But as The Cut rightly points out, Steve Madden’s company has on more than one occasion been the defendant in intellectual-property lawsuits from those top designers for ripping off their designs. He’s made an industry of copying high-end shoes for pennies on the dollar, and even if you respect his desire to bring big style to the little people, how creative do you have to be to manufacture replicas?

Above: In December, Balenciaga (the maker of the original Lego-inspired shoe on the right) sued Steve Madden over its uncanny knockoff, pictured on the left.

“After 10 seasons covering New York Fashion Week, I’ve learned that no matter how often People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest outside the tents at Bryant Park, every year designers will still incorporate fur into their collections. This week, Marc Jacobs, Thakoon, Carolina Herrera, and a handful of other designers used fur in abundance. It was like a barnyard with goat, mink, fox, beaver, raccoon, and even muskrat seen on the catwalk.”

– Boston Globe columnist Christopher Muther’s observations of New York Fashion Week, which concludes tomorrow. More commentary regarding fur on the runway to come tomorrow.

Pictured above: from Marc Jacobs’s F/W 2010 show on February 15.

American figure skater Johnny Weir has reported that he won’t back down to demands that he lose his costume trimmed with fox fur for his Olympics routine, even though he’s been the subject of death threats in recent weeks.

In his trademark flamboyant style, Weir invited extremists to bring it on:

“All these crazy fur people definitely changed my mind. Security wise, staying in a hotel would be very difficult,” Weir told reporters after turning up for an 0800 news conference sporting a striking red and white silk scarf looped around his neck and with his nails manicured. “There have been threats against me. Threats of harming me personally and I didn’t want to get hurt. So I decided to stay in the village and my team has made it as comfortable as possible. …

“There was a lot of attention put on a tiny piece of fur,” said the 25-year-old, the 2008 world bronze medallist. “While I do understand anti-fur activists views about fur and the fur industry, they aren’t part of my life.

“One thing that is horrible is when somebody pushes a belief on you like a religion. I was definitely threatened and felt very threatened. People are nuts.

“I’m an easy person to pick on because I’m very open I like fur and I like things that come from dead animals. It’s easy put your cause against an athlete going to the Olympic Games, it’s good free publicity for these activists.

“I’m not a huge politician that gets these threats all the time. I mean I’m a figure skater. It’s not normal to receive a threat that really threatens your life. It’s a very scary thing.”

Mr. Weir’s opinions may be considered outlandish to some, but we have to agree with him that threatening violence — especially given the Olympics’ history of lethal security breaches — is not the right way to confront him on this issue.

And this is actually the second fur controversy regarding the Vancouver Olympics. Read up on the first one here.

As I mentioned yesterday, Valentine’s Day is an irksome holiday. So we’re repossessing it in fashion’s name this year. We say for the next week, make a conscious decision to wear only what you love.

To get you inspired, we’ve published our Love, Ethically issue for your reading pleasure:

• For the next seven days, decide you’re going to feel like a million bucks and make it happen. Here’s some pointers on how to make that happen.
• To remind you to dig deep in your accessories drawer during your week of fabulousness, we offer our second annual ethical jewelry guide — written with the bride-to-be in mind but really, everyone can use a little sparkle in their lives.
• Kara interviewed her friend Elizabeth D. for the inaugural Real Girl Ethics column, our newest feature where we profile a real person and what ethical style means to them. (Got someone in mind who would make a great subject? Email us here!)
• If you’re one of the people whose boyfriend pops the question this weekend, you’ll be sure to have wedding brain. Tracy DiNunzio from RecycledBride.com offers her insight into the enduring popularity (and ease!) of green weddings.
• On a more serious note, the recent controversy over Love magazine’s decision to publish eight supermodels’ measurements got us thinking: Shouldn’t we put more effort into building self-love, rather than holding ourselves up to impossible standards? Read our quasi-feminist manifesto here.
• And as always, we bring you Seam Ripper, our compilation of Behind the Seams blog articles on the subject of love if you’re in the mood for more reading.